Silence

But my mother also had a secret. She never spoke about the years her mother worked as an itinerant Aunt Jemima, traveling to small towns conducting pancake demonstrations, dressed in a hoop skirt and apron with a bandana on her head.....
Silence, I learned, had its rewards....and its costs.
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The Conversation

Norris discovers family secrets because elders in her family started divulging stories in the wake of Barack Obama's election, what were conversations about race like during the 2008 election?
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Michele Norris is one of the most trusted voices in American Journalism. Her voice informs, engages and enlightens listeners with thoughtful interviews and in depth reporting as one of the hosts of NPR’s flagship afternoon broadcast, All Things Considered.

My idea was to use these little black postcards to get the conversation started. But I quickly realized once I hit the road on my book tour that I didn’t really need that kind of incentive. All over the country people who came to hear about my story wound up sharing their own.